LANCASTER, Pa. --- The Moravian College football team out-scored host Franklin & Marshall College, 10-3, in the second half but it wasn't enough to overcome a first half deficit as the Greyhounds fell to the Diplomats, 24-17, in Centennial Conference action Saturday afternoon.
The Hounds are now 4-3 overall and 3-3 in Centennial Conference play after their second straight loss, and the game had an old school feel to it with F&M suffering from a power failure. The game was played with no scoreboard or play clocks, and the public address system did not begin working until halftime.
"It was a little bit of two halves again this week," commented Head Coach Jeff Pukszyn. "Last week, I don't think we were able to close things out, and this week we couldn't get it going in the first half. In the second half, we played to strengths of some of our players, and the guys battled hard, and I'm proud of them for that. We had some procedure penalties on offense that out us behind the chains, and you can't do that against a good defense like F&M has. It was hard to throw the ball with as windy as it was today. We've got some things to clean up for next week."
Moravian was held to a season-low 268 yards on 68 plays with 175 yards coming on the ground. Junior quarterback Kordell Theadford came on in the third quarter when starter senior Mike Hayes was injured, and Theadford ran for a career-high 108 yards on 10 carries, and he completed 2-of-7 passes for nine yards and a touchdown. Hayes was 9-for-23 for 78 yards with an interception, and he ran for 20 yards on seven carries.
"Kordell is a competitor and a player you really want on your team," Pukszyn said. "This week with some guys out for the first half and some other banged up, we had Kordell splitting time all over the place. He is a guy who just competes his tail off. Coach Tim McGorry played to his strengths by getting him to scramble and find some holes to manufacture yardage. Kordell is a dual threat kid and I think he is really hard to defend. He played to his strengths when he came in for Mike."
Senior wide receiver Liam Nolan caught six passes for 61 yards and a touchdown as he became the ninth player in school history to reach 100 career receptions on his first catch of the game. Junior wide receiver Aaron Hudson added three receptions for 26 yards while senior running back Chris Negron had 36 yards and a touchdown on nine carries before missing most of the second half. Freshman running back Roberto Diez had 10 carries for 20 yards.
Defensively, the Greyhounds had three players with double-digit tackles led by senior linebacker Edward Delia, who had 17 tackles with two and a half for loss and a forced fumble. Senior defensive lineman John Snyder had 12 stops with one for loss while sophomore linebacker Nick Zambelli had 11 tackles.
Junior punter Aaron Brown was called on nine times for 347 yards with a long punt of 50 yards.
F&M started with the ball and punted on its first two possessions while Moravian punted on its first two drive as well. The Greyhounds did have a first down on their opening possession of the game, and the Blue and Grey had three first downs on the second drive with Nolan catching his 100th pass for the initial first down of the second possession.
Moravian would gain possession on F&M's third drive near midfield when Delia forced a fumble that sophomore defensive lineman Nick Tone recovering the ball. Negron finished off the three-play drive with a five-yard run after a game-long 23-yard run on the previous play. Sophomore Kenny Kane added the extra-point to give the Greyhounds a 7-0 lead with 4:08 to play in the first quarter.
The Diplomats scored on the first play of the second quarter, and after an interception, F&M took a 14-7 lead with 13:50 left in the first half. F&M added another touchdown on a pass with 5:43 before the intermission to take a 21-7 lead into the locker room.
Moravian started the second half with the ball but would punt after one first down. The Diplomats punted after three plays while the Greyhounds picked up a first down on their next possession before punting.
F&M went on a long drive and added a short field goal with 4:43 remaining in the third quarter to extend lead to 24-7.
With Theadford in at quarterback, the Greyhounds would score on their next possession. Theadford ran for 40 yards on the second play of the drive and would get into the red zone before a third down pass fell incomplete in the end zone. Kane connected on a 24-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter to cut Diplomats' advantage to 24-10.
Moravian's defense held F&M to one first down and forced a punt.
The Greyhounds took over at their own 20-yard line, and runs of 34, 14 and 12 yards by Theadford moved the ball just outside of the red zone. The Hounds would get a first and goal when F&M was called for a hold on a fourth down play. Two plays later, Theadford rolled out to his left and found Nolan with a seven-yard touchdown pass. Kane's extra-point cut the deficit to 24-17 with 8:53 to play.
The Hounds defense eventually forced F&M to turn the ball over on downs with 4:22 remaining but Moravian was unable to move the ball and punted. The Diplomats would pick up two first downs to run out the clock.
The Greyhounds are scheduled to return to action on Saturday, October 29 in a Centennial Conference game at Gettysburg College beginning at 1:00 p.m.
